A.D. Drumm Images, LLC – Landscape, Portrait, and Fine Art Photography in Rochester MN Photography

This week, Summerset Theatre in Austin presented Steve Martin’s Picasso at the Lapin Agile. It’s a rather esoteric show about a meeting of Picasso and Einstein in a French bistro before either became truly famous. What is genius and can we compare art and science?

I didn’t know the show, so I did a little research first. I like to have some idea what’s coming when I start to shoot. I feel some preparation goes a long way toward producing good photos. Still, I expected a box set with the cafe but didn’t know a lot about the characters and their interactions. There was a lot of movement, a lot of interesting characters, and it made the shoot fun.

The waitress and bar tender are sort of constants. Looking through my photos, I have many with them in the background, watching or working, or working and watching.

 Between the questions it poses, there’s plenty of humor, and I could hear Steve Martin’s voice throughout the show. I remember some of his first acts on TV years ago. He was incredibly funny, but I had no idea of the intelligence and skills he really possessed back then. It became pretty clear over the years, though.

Topping things off, Elvis shows up from the future, and we now have the three important characters to shape the 20th century. I get pretty wrapped up in the photography, so I can’t quite devote enough brain cells to the actual show. I’d like to see it again and take in the dialog more completely.

While the lighting was mostly pretty even through the show, there were a few exceptions, and it’s always fun to see what I can do with the interesting lighting I’m given. I wasn’t sure how much moving around the stage I’d do for this show, but I did plenty. And I took plenty of photos, probably more than I expected. But that’s okay! With a show like this, expressions and gestures can make each shot, even taken in a sequence, different. And it’s good to have choices.

 Everyone did a great job. Musicals are always a big draw for audiences, but there’s much more to theatre than that. We’re so fortunate to have so many options here in southeast Minnesota. Remember those big-budget movies will look and sound great on your home flat screen, but live theatre is there only for an instant. Every performance is different. If you haven’t been to our local live theatres, you are missing a great experience. Summerset’s next show, Cash on Delivery, runs at the end of the month.

Tonight, we’re attending the ten-minute plays at The Rep. And Mantorville runs their fun melodramas in the summer. There are plenty of opportunities – hope you have a chance to see some yourself! (And those of you not here in SE Minnesota, check out your own local options!)

For me, a personal photography project means stepping out of my normal “routine” and finding something different to shoot and something different to do in post. Last year, I shot my interpretation of the four classic elements, Fire, Water, Air, and Earth. I’m constantly looking for inspiration and other ideas that will stretch my abilities, stretch my vision.

I’ve begun working on my new project entitled I Dance… The concept is a detailed focus on dance and dancers along with a very stylized presentation. It’s fun, in part, because it’s so broad. I expect to be working on it for some time, and I envision creating a series of many images. Well, that’s what I’m thinking now!

I’ve shot a couple sessions so far. I had Chris and Jesse model a few ballroom styles for me. They turned out great providing plenty of raw material. I’ve posted a couple of the resulting images. I asked Morgan to provide some hip-hop moves for me. While I have some ideas going into the shoot, I rely a lot on my dancer subjects to provide ideas. I then shoot some close-ups, trying to show features we don’t normally see as spectators, and some silhouettes.

I’m pleased so far with the results, although I’m not sure how many I’d consider finished, even including those I’m showing here. I sometimes need to spend some time with the images, get to know them, and ask them where they’d like to go. Wherever that is, it’s a fun ride. And I can’t think of a better reason to do a personal project!

Riverland’s summer theatre, Summerset Theatre, began its season with The Sound of Music, the Rodgers and Hammerstein musical. We all mostly know this show from the Robert Wise film, which I, ahem, saw when it was released. The original stage version differs here and there from the film, as is typical. I saw a production of the show a few years ago up in the Twin Cities, which I vaguely remember having more closely followed the film than the original stage version.

Capturing images from such a well known show is interesting. There are some iconic scenes that I want to grab.

It’s great when there’s a moment with expressions that fill the frame with joy and fun, and I think this shot with Maria and the children is my favorite. I was fortunate to be in a good position to see all the faces as they were laughing.

Dances are challenging to capture with just stage lights. Even with a modern camera that practically sees in the dark, the lights can be a bit less than ideal, and the fast movement can produce a lot of blur. Sometimes, that’s okay, but it’s good to be ready for the pauses that can produce a crisper result. This is different from shooting a wedding, where I might have a strobe or two positioned to provide some good light.

I mostly like to get in tight if possible, even at the expense of losing some of the players. But I think it’s nice to have at least a few wider shots to show some of the set and convey the fact that this really is a stage show. The Riverland theatre has stadium seating, so I can run up a bit and get a nice overview of the stage. For Sound of Music, the orhestra was arranged just in front of the stage allowing me to showcase them as well as the actors.

As I mentioned, this show is very well known, and most viewers could guess this shot is during Climb Every Mountain.

The shot of The Captain singing during the festival shortly before the Trapp family makes their escape from Austria is another I particularly like. If you follow my posts about shooting show photos, you’ll find this set-up is familiar. I like placing the secondary player or players behind the primary character, slightly out of focus, providing support. It’s just visually appealing to me, I guess.

Summerset has a couple more shows, both opening in July. You can find out more here. When you tire of the summer movies, take some time and see live actors perform on stage. For those in Rochester, it’s a quick drive to Austin.

I was attending a concert the other day. Before the concert began, there are various guitars and keyboards, and of course, the drum set  propped up on stage. I’m sitting there looking at the musical instruments, and I started down one of those trains-of-thought. You know those trains – they like to derail and go off in their own favorite direction.

I started thinking about how we photographers generally refer to our cameras, equipment, and software as tools.

We like to say, this lens is just a tool we use to make a photograph. A better lens won’t make a bad photographer suddenly good. That sort of thing.

But as I sat there, I decided a better descriptor might be instrument. I like the metaphor of visual music. It feels right. We blend light and color, and indeed we use the term tone, to create our photographs. They can evoke emotions of calm, serenity, perhaps even love. Or, they can be discordant evoking strong reactions of sadness, pain like the Chernobyl images of Paul Fusco.

Perhaps it’s just words – tools or instruments. But I like the latter. It says more to me about these pieces of software and hardware, and it helps explain why we look for new instruments to help us make our music a bit richer. A great pianist can bang out a wonderful tune on a modest piano, but when she touches the ivories of a well tuned, lovingly built instrument, we’re carried to another place.

Opus 100: Hey! It’s my 100th blog post. I wish I was able to post more frequently, but I’m pleased to have hit triple digits. (Isaac Asimov fans will understand the Opus 100 reference.)

This week, I was out to Riverland Community College to shoot show photos for RENT. I shot during one of their final rehearsals. They opened on Friday and will run again next weekend. Lynne and I will be out there Sunday to see the final performance. It will be good to be able to concentrate on the story rather than just the visual look as I do while shooting.

The cast and crew did a great job. Scot and the band were terrific, and James’ set is amazing. You’ll see some of that set here. He told me later how hard it was to make things look run down and grungy.

I took a ton of photos. That seems to happen more so with musicals. There’s more movement, choreography, I think, that makes me move around more, searching for the right composition to tell the story of the show with still images. Beyond the technical challenges of shooting in low light and harsh light, the real trick is seeing the image you want in your head then moving to the right place to photograph that image. Sometimes, things happen too fast and there’s not enough time to move from stage left to stage right. But when you get it right, it can be very satisfying.

While moving in tight is good, and it’s my preference, some scenes demand that you capture nearly the full stage. These images take you there and let the viewer know these are shots from a stage production. They help show the extent and art of the set.

This show presented many really nice opportunities for good shots. The blocking often produced good photographic composition. Several of my shots show almost a classic triangular composition. It’s a reminder that performing arts are visual arts, too. While they have other means to draw the eyes of the audience and focus attention, classical forms and rules still have a use. Lucky for me as I can then translate them into my two-dimensional form.

In choosing photos for this post, I had many that show one or two players up close, interacting with each other or interacting with the audience. Creating drama, emotion.

My goal is to capture that as best I can. Having the right sight-line, as I mentioned earlier, is an important piece of that puzzle.

When you get it exactly right, it’s almost magical. The actors are performing the vision of the director, so I don’t have the ability to pose or re-pose my subjects. My posing then takes the form of my feet. Moving to make the shot work the best. If it can look planned, that’s great!

RENT is a musical filled with angst. The singing is nearly constant, and there are plenty of chances to capture a cool solo performance.

Shooting a lighted subject against a dark background helps draw us to the subject. It’s sort of Lighting 101. And it produces some of my favorite shots.

And some shots combine all the elements. Emotion. Interactions. Lighted subjects with a dark background. Terrific visual composition. I press the shutter and know I have a photo I’m going to like. One that might make a great finale for a blog post!

 

We were invited to a surprise birthday party on Saturday. I figured it was a good opportunity to have a little time behind the lens. I’ve been pouring most of my creativity lately into the RCT new season posters and haven’t done much shooting. The other day, I took a few shots of our daffodils. When I imported them into Lightroom, I saw that some other daffodil shots I took of our garden were dated late in April. Here it is a full month earlier. Although today has been more seasonal, the weather this month has been wonderful!

I packed up my camera and we headed out to the party. I did a few test shots to set my exposure, then I was ready when Ellie arrived. The backlighting of the low evening sun was pretty nice. When I’m shooting at something like this, I’m taking what I guess I consider snapshots. Trying to grab some moments and emotion. Not unlike a bigger event like a wedding reception, but with obviously less pressure. More chances to experiment. I figure I’m not shooting fine art or portraits that will grace a wall, but they have their own appeal.

You try to keep your eyes open and capture the hugs and smiles as best you can. We like to say equipment doesn’t matter – only the photographer. But, yes, it does help having the ability to open up the aperture and blur the background. Can’t always do that with a point-and-shoot.

I try to take a lot of photos. With people, expressions can change from second to second, so I’m pleased when I can catch a wonderful smile (and a bottle of wine!).

As evening progressed and the sun began to fade, I added a flash. I set my ISO a bit higher so the ambient light – what there was of it – would still fill in the frame with some light. I blasted the flash off the house wall behind me so, although the light from the flash is mainly straight on, the shadows aren’t harsh. I had a diffuser on the flash so there’s still some light coming directly from the flash, but it’s tolerable. A bit of yellow gel adds some warmth.

Down at the bonfire, I let the fire provide a lot of the light with a touch of fill from the gel’d flash. When it’s balanced right, the main light – the  brightest light – is clearly the fire. This may even be a bit hotter, flash-wise, than I’d prefer, but I’m still happy with the result. Without the gel, I’d be fighting with the colors – red and yellow from the fire and blue from the flash. I’m a big fan of gels. It’s something I can say definitively I learned from Joe McNally.

RCT was having a Jazz Jam that same evening, and Ellie wanted very much to drop in. So, some of the party moved to RCT where Ellie took a couple turns at the microphone. I think she enjoyed her birthday party in spite of claiming she hates surprises. We had a good time, too, and anytime I can do some shooting, you know I’m happy.